Krauthammer: Trump is running

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says Donald Trump reached out to him after a piece he wrote that laced into the developer's potential 2012 bid — a phone call he said convinced him The Donald is running for president.

"I was prepared for a gale of abuse, because I've been really tough on him, and he would have been within his rights to do it," Krauthammer told Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday night. "Actually he was rather gracious and courteous. ... He wanted to make me see, in his view, he was a serious candidate and a serious man.

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"He handled that rather well," Krauthammer added. "I give him the credit for graciousness and restraint. But it convinced me that he's running, that it's not just a feint."

Krauthammer said the call didn't change his views "on the unseriousness of his candidacy. But as a person, I thought more highly of him... because of the gracious way and the calm and courteous way he discussed the issues."

It's at least the second call Trump has made to a public critic this week — earlier, he phoned Chris Chocola, the former congressman and head of the Club for Growth, the anti-tax group that's devoted days to eviscerating the developer over his past statements and positions. Chocola told MSNBC he wasn't swayed.

But Trump maintained tough words for another establishment critic, former George W. Bush political brain Karl Rove, who he slammed to Fox News host Greta Van Susteren.

"The fact is Abraham Lincoln couldn't have beaten [President Barack) Obama because Bush and Karl Rove finished so weakly," Trump insisted, after Van Susteren noted that Rove said the developer's pursuit of the birther cause made him a "joke."

"So I don't want to listen to Karl Rove," Trump said. "The fact is there's something there. He hasn't given his birth certificate and a lot of Republicans agree with me very strongly on this, Greta."

Trump insisted the issue is one "with resilience, it's something I'm working on very hard," but also expressed an interest in discussing other issues.

When Van Susteren noted that the unemployment rate seems to be falling, Trump replied, "Well it is, but the real rate is about 19 percent. You know that and so do I."

When asked how he would restore jobs that have gone overseas through outsourcing to the U.S., Trump said, "Very easily. Just by putting the incentives to have people employ our people. ... Through education and spirit. They have no spirit. They feel defeated. Because there's nobody to lead them. We have no leader in this country."

Van Susteren asked him how he would approach the millions who are facing foreclosure because they have mortgages that are higher than the value of their homes, and Trump said what he'd "love 'em to do is go see their local banker and negotiate a new deal because frankly if they're smart and if they know how to do it they'll be able to make a gerat deal with the bank."

When she pointed out that the banks are not loaning money, and that they have "no incentive" to be more lenient, he replied, "I think honestly it depends on how you speak to the bank."

He insisted the banks "don't want to see that house empty," but then said he had told Van Susteren over a year ago that "the banks are not loaning money... and the banks frankly should be ashamed of themsleves for what they've done."

Trump, whose showiness has been frowned on by many of the elites in his native New York, said he would relate well to working people.

"Perhaps the rich are the ones I don't get along with the best if you want to know the truth," he said, adding that middle class people "are the people I would do the best job for."